Walking Down The Narrow Road
by The Talking Pen
Summary: Put a girl and a boy on a dirty old farm and force them to live together; What do you get? Four words; Complete.And.Utter.Chaos. Main couple: JackxClaire, may have others in future chapters. Based off Harvest Moon MFOMT and FOMT.


**(Pen-chan: Hehe, I was bored, so I decided to look at some Harvest Moon fanart. xD Then, for some reason, I was inspired to write a Harvest Moon fanfic. LOL, I love Harvest Moon! And I love JackxClaire! Though, it will never happen in the game, since they're the main characters and all... ;_; Well, this story mainly has JackxClaire, though, there might be some other pairings too. Uh, maybe JackxAnn, JackxElli, JackxMary, CliffxClaire, GrayxClaire, DoctorxClaire or others like that? Don't know, eh. We'll see later on. But one thing's for sure, this fic will be FULL of DRAMA, FLUFF and CRAZINESS. ^^ Enjoy.)**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or the characters in this fic.**_

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Chapter 1 - A New Life, Surprises and Mistakes

**xXx**

_Have you ever wondered why sometimes life has these little ups and downs that remind you of roller coaster rides? Well, I did. And little did I know, that I would be climbing up so high that it felt like I could almost touch the heavens only to trip and fall down even before my fingers could graze the clouds. Now I was on my way back to earth, zooming down faster than any roller coaster could possibly hope to go. And trust me, it wasn't a fun ride back to the cold, hard ground at all._

_It hurt when I crashed. It hurt a whole hell lot._

**xXx**

Claire lazed on the couch, head rested on a pillow and armed with the television remote control. She flipped through channels sheepishly, sucking on a metal spoon in her mouth.

"Today's weather forecast shows sunny days ahead--"

"Buy max-care face wash right now! Only $7.95! Maximum care for acne-free skin--"

"Ohayo minna! Watashi Wa Akira-san--"

"JASON! PLEASE, NO! DON'T LEAVE ME! I LOV--"

The television screen immediately blanked out with a single flick of the 'off' button. Claire sighed, the spoon accidentally dropping from her mouth and onto the floor with a loud clanging sound. The blond girl stared nonchalantly at the spoon laying on the ground, among the buckets and buckets of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Cherry Garcia, Berried Treasure, Chunky Monkey, Strawberry Cheesecake, Chubby Hubby; you name it, it was all there.

One would think that after devouring so much frozen dairy dessert, one would gain a couple of kilograms than what one really needs. Well, Claire didn't care. She didn't care that the apartment she lived in was practically a pigsty, or that her mouth and chin was smeared with chocolate ice cream. She didn't care that her blond hair hadn't been combed for days and easily resembled a bird's nest or that there were dark circles under her previous sparkling blue - now lifeless as a zombie's - eyes.

She closed her lifeless eyes in attempt to take a quick nap. She didn't care that it was still early afternoon and that the whole city she lived in was buzzing with life. No... she didn't care.

But she did care that the traffic situation outside was making a whole hell lot of noise.

'BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEP!'

"OUT OF THE WAY, BUB!"

"HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, JACKASS!"

Claire narrowed her eyebrows, her eye lids still shut tightly, in irritation. She flipped over and covered her head with her pillow, trying to block out the loud noises that invaded her peace and quiet. She had been in a particularly foul mood these days and the constant noise from the passing cars wasn't helping much.

'BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP!!!'

'WHAT THE HELL! DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE OR WHAT?!'

The blond girl growled underneath her pillow.

"God, shut the fu--"

'BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!'

"GAHHHH!!" Claire screamed, jumping to her feet and throwing up her arms into the air. She stomped over to the window and raised the window, glaring down at the busy street filled with cars racing by. Her eyes scanned through the road. Now.. who was that moron who kept beeping his damned horn?

A gust of wind blew in her direction but she ignored it as that blasted horn sounded again.

"HEY, YOU!" Claire screeched, pointing at the owner of the shiny red Mercedes that was cruising by slowly. "SOME PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE! WOULD YOU MIND SHUTTING THE HELL--"

_*SMACK!*_

Claire stumbled backwards, her hands groping over the material that had just attacked her face in the midst of her sentence. She cursed violently in her mind, trying to get whatever thing that had just been carried by the wind and flown right through her window into her face. She tore the material off herself and saw that it was a newspaper.

Great. Her place was already that much of a dump, and now other people's rubbish invite themselves to live here?

She snorted and was about to crush the newspaper and throw it over her shoulder when something on the paper caught her eye. An add.

"What's this?" Claire mused and started to read the add.

_'Tired of city life? Want to get away from all the hustle and bustles of your boring life?'_

Claire nodded in agreement at the newspaper. "Damn straight I do."

_'Then this is the thing for you! Why not try a new change of pace? A lovely farm located right in the beautiful country side could be all yours for just a low price! No installments included! To check and confirm details, call us at this number!'_

Claire folded the newspaper into two and tapped her chin in wonder.

"Farm life, huh...?" she mumbled to herself under her breath.

She closed her eyes and started to ponder seriously about it. She wondered if there would be animals there; after all, she did love animals. Her stupid, selfish landlady wouldn't allowed her to keep a pet in the apartment. However, if she moved to the farm, she would be able to keep all the animals she wanted without ever worrying about getting a scolding from any old lady with a temper that could rival Godzilla's. She started to imagine a clean, serene place with lots of nature surrounding her... The only sound she could hear was the whistling of the wind and the splashing of a nearby stream with the cheerful tweeting of birds in the background.

And the best part was - she wouldn't have to worry about any stupid cars with their stupid beeping...

As if right on que, another beep from below blared through her window so loudly that her walls rattled, causing one of her picture frames hanging on the wall to drop and shatter on the floor.

"That's it!" Claire hissed through clenched teeth. There was only so much an 18-year old girl could take and she had already reached her limit a long, long time ago. She marched over to where her phone was, snatched it off the receiver, slammed down the newspaper onto the table and started to jab at the numbers with her fingers.

"Hello?" she said when someone from the other end of the line picked up. "Erm, yeah... I saw your add and I'm calling to ask about the farm... Is it still available?"

**xXx**

_One week later..._

**What. The. Hell. Was. This.**

It had been a week since Claire had made the necessary arrangements and had prepared herself for her spanking new life in Mineral town. She had really liked what she had seen so far; a cozy, relatively small town with friendly-looking townsfolk. No noisy, beeping vehicles in sight, or factories that produced gray smoke and made your eyes water... No. It was exactly like she imagined. A clean, green, peaceful place. It was goodbye old city life and hello to this...

but...

What the - _freaking_ - hell was THIS?

Claire stared on speechlessly, her mouth slightly agape in horror.

The field was a total dump. It was so dirty, so disgusting and messy-looking! But it was green alright. Just not the type of green that Claire had expected - or wanted. Hideous weeds conquered the field which was also home to a humongous collection of stones of all shapes and sizes; from tiny pebbles to boulders that was at least five times larger than her head. Dead, partially rotting stumps and broken tree branches also joined in the grotesque sight, just laying there uselessly without a purpose.

No galloping horses, no mooing cows, no gazing sheep, not even a barking dog or purring kitty could be found anywhere. It wasn't stated that there would _actually_ be animals provided along with the farm, but she had been hoping that there would be at least one friendly creature to keep her company. She felt a rush of disappointment.

Apparently, it also wasn't stated that the farm had looked like a hurricane had passed through earlier.

"What the hell was I thinking! Stupid retailer!"

Claire scowled at the sight before her bitterly. She blamed herself inwardly for being such a moron. It was as clear as crystal that she had been tricked. What 'lovely' farm selling for a low price? It was like she bought over a dump without even knowing it. If she had wanted to live in a dump, she would have just stayed back home in her old apartment with her empty ice cream buckets. It beat living among a forest of weeds, stumps and boulders any day. Too bad she couldn't turn back now. Even if the price of the farm wasn't a huge sum, it did suck out most of her savings. She was left here, stranded, luggage in hand and with what little of her money left to spare.

A frustrated sigh escaped from her lips. Oh well. She'd just have to live here until further notice.

...but... live _where_, exactly?

Claire looked around the farm and spotted a small wooden house that could use a serious paint job nearby. She frowned even more, guessing that she would be living inside that tiny thing for the time being. Lifting her luggage which she had placed onto the ground to gawk at the scene before her eyes for a few moments, the blue-eyed blond made her way to the small wooden house.

The door knob was a bit dusty and the door creaked hauntingly as she pushed it open and entered the house. The curtains were drawn and the lights were off. It was so dark that Claire couldn't make out a single thing inside the place. She tried to feel for something, entering deeper into the unknown darkness, blinding herself in the process.

"I wonder where's that switch.." she thought, reaching out for something to guide her.

All of the sudden, as she stepped forward, her foot caught onto something. She gasped, losing her balance and fell forward, her luggage slipping out of her hand and went flying across the floor. She landed onto the wooden floor and was surprised when she heard a noise - something like a sharp yelp - in the room. Then, there was a groan and that scared her even more. She stumbled backwards, still unable to see through the thick darkness and collided into an unknown object.

"OWWW! THAT HURT!"

... or an unknown _person_.

Claire couldn't stand it any longer, the color drained from her face and she let out a loud scream.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the second person seemed to scream back in equal loudness. There was a thump on the floor and Claire wondered if he or she had fallen down in surprise.

She hastily felt for the wall and miraculously found the switch and flipped it on, activating the lights. The lights flickered on and lighted up the whole room and for the first time, Claire was able to see things clearly.

She could only stare helplessly at the thing - no, _BOY_ - sitting down on the floor, rubbing his head painfully.

W-what was this? A thief? A robber? Some stalker that had seen and followed her all the way to the farm? Claire could only continue to stare as the boy winced in pain. He slowly looked up and their eyes met for the first time. There was a long, awkward silence as the two stared back wordlessly, both of them bewildered at the presence of each other.

Then, they spoke at the same time, the exact same words came thumbling out of their mouths.

_"Who are you?"_

**xXx**

**(Pen-chan: Actually this chapter is quite short. _; Now that I think about it... Sorry. Dx)**


End file.
